Melanie Hamel

I am a conservation scientist with a broad expertise. A key goal of my work is providing a strong evidence base for informing the management of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in a range of socio-ecological contexts. I use and develop approaches that integrate multi-disciplinary data with a combination of tools such as geographic information systems, reserve design algorithms, and programming. A lot of my work focuses on coastal and marine environments in the Pacific Islands, but I am also involved in various projects on threatened species (including marine megafauna) ecology, management/conservation and monitoring in Australia and other parts of the world.

I strive to bridge the gap between science and policy by working alongside multiple stakeholders (incl. international, government and non-governmental organisations, local communities) and industries. This ensures my work has direct impact on the ground. For example, I recently led the IUCN Red List assessment for the subpopulation of Dugongs in New Caledonia in collaboration with local researchers and NGOs, which has directly contributed to actions at the local scale.

Current projects

- I support research for a NESP cross-cutting initiative (2021-2026) on Australia's threatened and migratory species and threatened ecological communities, co-designed with Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW);

- I co-lead/contribute to several projects within the Dugong Research Group (Marine Megafauna) at TropWATER.

Publications

Google Scholar profile